Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday came
to the rescue of a dyslexic student by allowing her to sit in
her class XII board examinations next week.

Payal Sarkar of Central School in Fort William here was
not permitted to appear in the examinations due to low
attendance, following which she moved the court which sought
an explanation from the school authorities on the issue.

In his order, Justice B Somadder allowed Payal to sit
for the board exam commencing on March 10.

CBSE`s lawyer US Menon submitted before the court that
it had, considering the special case, already sent the admit
card to the school. At this, the court directed the principal,
who was present in court, to deliver the admit card to Payal.

Her counsels Subrata Mukhopadhyay and Kaushik Chanda
told the court that Payal has difficulty in recognising
alphabets and characters and has to be treated for long terms
at stages and as such her attendance percentage was low.

According to the school authorities, she has 56 percent attendance, while the board recorded it to be 59 percent
- one short of its stipulated 60 percent for students with
specific illnesses.

Though dyslexia did not fall within the ambit of
specified illnesses like cancer and TB, the court directed
that this be considered a special case due to Payal`s efforts
to continue her studies despite her illness.

The court also suggested the CBSE to consider
appointing teachers for differently-abled children in all its
schools and have a proper mechanism to identify them. Justice
Somadder observed that schools have a duty to identify such
special children and make provisions for imparting proper
education to them.